Most Recent: News

3DS launching March 27, priced at $250

Posted on January 19, 2011 by John Scalzo

Nintendo’s New York City reveal of the 3DS is finished and we now know everything about the company’s next handheld.

It’ll launch on March 27 with a suggested retail price of $249.99, making it Nintendo’s most expensive handheld ever. And what do you get for your money, in addition to the 3DS system, the box will be packed with a ton of extras:

  • Telescoping stylus
  • Mii Maker software
  • A physical activity log/pedometer program
  • Face Raiders, a pre-installed game that uses the 3DS’ camera
  • “Enhanced” Internet browswer
  • Sound software/MP3 player that’s very similar to what’s on the DSi
  • AR Cards for “alternate reality” games
  • 2GB SD card

Nintendo plans to have more than 30 games available for the 3DS between its launch and E3 in June. The publisher didn’t want to get specific about which titles would be available on day one and which would be available in the launch window, but 24 titles were revealed by Nintendo this morning, including Nintendogs + Cats, Pilotwings Resort and Steel Diver.

As to the 3DS’ online capabilities, Nintendo revealed that the handheld will still use Friend Codes, but they will be system-specific. Individual game codes will no longer be required. And the system’s “Spot Pass” will attempt to connect to wi-fi networks automatically.

Finally, the 3DS eShop will include “a steady stream of Game Boy and Game Boy Color games,” along with a variety of original titles.

So that’s what we know about the 3DS, are you excited yet?

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PlayStation Store update for 1/18/11 brings Mass Effect 2 to the PSN

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

This week’s PlayStation store update brings a ton of great content, most notable of which is the digital version of Mass Effect 2.  Coming in at 12GB, the game is accompanied by a load of free and priced downloadable content, as well as a free game trial for PSN Plus Subscribers.  Other notable releases include Modern Combat: Domination at a reasonable $7.99 (with a demo if the low price point isn’t enough for you to give it a shot) and a handful of Neo Geo games now available on PSP, including Alpha Mission II and The King of Fighters ’94. Hit the jump for the full list of new downloadable content, courtesy of Grace Chen of the PlayStation Blog. (more…)

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Nintendo 3DS liveblog starting now

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

Nintendo is currently holding a U.S. preview of the 3DS in New York City right now.  The launch event started at 9 a.m. EST and will answer most of the questions still surrounding the purportedly magical handheld device.  Reggie Fils-Aime himself is hosting and plans to give details on the U.S. launch date, pricing, initial library and other news.

The President of Nintendo America has already made some bold claims, that the current era of gaming began with playing Mario in 3D (apparently referring to Super Mario 64) and that this is “the next big step in the modern era of video games, Nintendo 3DS.”  Other announced details are that the system will launch in aqua blue and cosmo black, and that the top screen will be 10% larger than it is on the DSi.  The announcements are pouring out, so you best head over to Kotaku for their ongoing liveblog of the event.

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Top Spin 4 serving up biggest roster ever on March 15

Posted on January 18, 2011 by John Scalzo

Andre Agassi is returning to a virtual tennis court for the first time in over a decade and he’s bringing the largest roster of players ever to appear in a tennis game with him. 2K Sports has revealed that 25 players Top Spin 4 will be released for the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 on March 15.

The complete roster includes:

  • Andre Agassi
  • Bjorn Borg
  • Roger Federer
  • Jim Courier
  • Rafael Nadal
  • Boris Becker
  • Serena Williams
  • Patrick Rafter
  • Michael Chang
  • Dinara Safina
  • Andy Murray
  • Novak Djokovic
  • Ana Ivanovic
  • Ivan Lendel
  • Pete Sampras
  • Andy Roddick
  • James Blake
  • Caroline Wozniacki
  • Nikolay Davydenko
  • Gilles Simon
  • Bernard Tomic
  • Eugenie Bouchard
  • Stanislas Wawrinka
  • Vera Zvonareva
  • Jelena Jankovic

PS3 and Xbox 360 owners can add a 26th player to the mix if they pre-order Top Spin 4: “Vintage” Andre Agassi. That’s right, the mullet returns!

Agassi was quiet on the subject of his mullet, but he did say, “Tennis has been in my life for as long as I can remember. I hope that with Top Spin 4 players can enjoy the sport as much as I have.”

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Valve details PS3 Portal 2 Steam functionality… and it’s good

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

When Gabe Newell announced at Sony’s E3 press conference that Portal 2 would be bringing Steam over to the PS3, gamers familiar with the service knew something special was going to happen.  We just didn’t know which features were being carried over.  Today, Valve released a press release detailing exactly which ones: cross-platform multiplayer among PS3, PC, and Mac users; cross-platform chat and game invites; PS3 saves stored on the Steam cloud server; and linking your PSN and Steam accounts will allow you to play your copy on PC and Mac as well, via Steam Play.

This is a major step forward for cross-platform gaming, the first notable development since Epic Games released Unreal Tournament III on the PS3 and PC with cross-platform multiplayer back in 2007.  Personally, I want to see a lot of games in the Steam store available for purchase on PS3.  If they allow keyboard & mouse support, I’d be all over playing Counter-Strike source in surround sound on my HDTV.

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Final Fantasy XIII-2 officially announced; see the trailer now

Posted on January 18, 2011 by John Scalzo

UPDATE: Square Enix has pulled the trailer, but it’ll be officially unveiled on January 20th.

After it’s reveal early this morning in Tokyo, Square Enix has officially announced Final Fantasy XIII-2 for North America and Europe as well.

Coming to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 “next winter” (presumably sometime early in 2012), the game’s official website is now live and it includes a single screenshot of Lightning with a very big sword.

Further details are pretty hard to come by, but Square Enix did promise that the game will feature a brand new story and an “evolved” battle system. They’ve also revealed that the game’s first trailer will be available at the official website on the 20th, but it’s already been posted to YouTube, and you can check it out after the break. (more…)

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Final Fantasy Versus XIII stays PS3 exclusive in seven glorious minutes

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

UPDATE: Square Enix has pulled the trailer from YouTube. The publisher has promised to post an official version on January 27, which you can see right here.

Many gamers in RPG circles have been calling Final Fantasy Versus XIII “our last hope.” We’re banking it all on this game, that it’ll be what Final Fantasy XIII should’ve been: the mind-blowing cinematic JRPG that defines a generation. I really don’t want to jinx this, but it’s looking like Versus XIII will be that game. In this trailer revealed at the Square Enix 1st Production Department Premier (I love typing that), Tetsuya Nomura and crew lay it all on the line, showing exploration, combat, and beautifully-rendered cut scenes that look substantially better than the original trailer from 2006. It seems to be a real-time action RPG; the combat plays like a third person shooter when controlling party members with guns; you can get into turrets and even mechs to fight enemies; players will fight hordes of monsters at a time in massive, open environments; and Noctis can be seen fighting enemies on platforms flying through a city as terrifying velocities. This last scene seems to corroborate that there will be a lot of interactive set pieces to get the blood pumping – another scene shows the protagonist running from a Behemoth vomiting fireballs apparently in-game, and the windows crash in suddenly at a party, catching everyone off guard.

The end also confirms that the game will still be PlayStation 3 exclusive, and it shows from just how stunning the graphics are in the cutscenes. The only tragedy in this whole matter is that no release date has been pinned down. Many of the aspects of the game appear to be finalized, though, so hopefully we can get our hands on it soon.

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Square Enix reveals all at 1st Production Department Premier

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

I’m not sure who came up with the name for this event, but Square Enix is delivering the goods on their biggest titles today at their 1st Production Department Premier event. Happening this morning (or night) in Tokyo, the event has come with goodies like an incredible new Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailer, and the announcement of, yep, Final Fantasy XIII-2 (which is coming to the PS3 and Xbox 360). Japanese game blog Andriasang liveblogged the event and has all the details on those games as well as Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance and Final Fantasy Type-0 (the PSP game formerly known as Final Fantasy Agito XIII).

This is going to be a powerhouse news day for fans of JRPGs and Japanese games in general, so be sure to stay tuned.

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